LAKE ELSINORE: City working to retrofit city buildings

No damage found during recent post-earthquake inspection

LAKE ELSINORE -- Two earthquake-prone buildings owned by the
city will be retrofitted if the city scores millions in grant
funding.

While the recent earthquake in Chino Hills did not damage any of
Lake Elsinore's buildings, bridges or levees, it underscored the
need to retrofit both City Hall and the Cultural Center, which
could collapse during a stronger earthquake, city officials
said.

Steve McCarty, a city redevelopment manager, said the city is
applying for $4 million in "hazard mitigation" funding offered by
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state's Office of
Emergency Services.

The grant program, which will divvy up $40 million among the
state's cities and public agencies, was created after the Southern
California fires of 2007.

While many cities are applying for money to boost fire
prevention efforts, McCarty said some cities have tailored
applications for seismic retrofitting and flood prevention, which
are allowable uses for the money.

A 1988 estimate pegs the cost of retrofitting the Cultural
Center, the site of the city's public meetings and special events,
and City Hall at around $2 million. But McCarty said the city will
get a new estimate, which is likely to be significantly higher, if
the grant application is approved.

In the application, McCarty detailed how many people use both
sites and how the retrofitting would benefit the city. That type of
detail is required by the state, which uses a cost-benefit scale to
weigh all of the grant applications it receives.

The applications that tally the highest score receive the
funding, which will be doled out next year around this time.

McCarty said he has heard there could be as much as $250 million
worth of projects submitted for consideration.

While that gives the city about a 15 percent chance, McCarty
said the grant request can be amended and resubmitted if more money
becomes available.

The state has imposed deadlines on schools and hospitals, which
are required to retrofit masonry buildings by a certain date, said
Fred Turner, a structural engineer with the California Seismic
Safety Commission.

Cities are required to inventory their unreinforced buildings
and work to retrofit them. Many cities have self-imposed deadlines
for retrofitting work, but there is no state-imposed deadline, he
said.

After a historical building in Paso Robles collapsed in 2003,
killing two people, the state passed a law requiring cities to post
warnings on their unreinforced buildings. Lake Elsinore has
complied with that law, posting plaques on the Cultural Center and
City Hall that say the buildings might not be safe during an
earthquake.

Turner said thousands of unreinforced buildings in the state are
at significant risk of collapse during a large earthquake. And he
said the risk is more pronounced when the buildings are near an
active fault.

The Lake Elsinore city buildings and many privately owned
unreinforced masonry buildings in the city's downtown stand a few
miles east of the Elsinore fault, which is considered by the U.S.
Geological Survey to be an active fault.

Lake Elsinore Councilwoman Genie Kelley said the city is looking
for grant money because it can't afford to shoulder the entire cost
of retrofitting the buildings.